Lots of New Friends . . . .

These pictures are not only of us, but also of some of the wonderful people we have met in the last 8 weeks. Here you see what we face everywhere we go - people taking pictures of us and the children with their cell phones and cameras. We feel like the traveling side show here, especially the cute red heads.

We have made lots of friends from many different places - The large group in the picture above is from the day that a dear friend of ours went back home to Belgium.

This picture of a picture shows an old, old "friend" also named Albert - Check out the English spelling of his name on the poster!
And this wonderful, kind old gentleman lives in another apartment building on campus here. He is always smiling and such a nice person to say hello to.

The playground at the chicken restaurant is a fun place to meet new people and for the twins to get some energy out of their system by jumping on the trampoline :)
And these two cuties are great friends of our girls, and they also live here on campus. They love to jump rope and play games together outside.

Some of our new friends are of the animal variety! Here are two of the girls with some precious neighbors that live right across the entryway in our building, along with two cute little chicks that belong to the little girl in the picture. Don't worry - No bird flu! It's also "puppy season" over here, or at least it seems like it, as lots of folks have new little puppies that the kids love to hold and play with. Hopefully in the next several months we will add an animal friend to our family as well.

Every day it seems we meet someone new, or at least get stared at by someone new, and we're enjoying meeting so many lovely people. The renovations are coming along - We're on day 13 and hope to be done VERY soon! You'll enjoy the before and after pictures of the kitchen and bathroom. It looks like Eastern Extreme Makeover! Oh, and there's lots of funny stories to tell, too - So come back next week to hear about and see pictures of the whole experience! Until then -

SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING!!!

Since our apartment is very small and we have no car, we do at least a small bit of walking and shopping virtually everyday. We don't have a Wal-Mart or other large store in our city, but we have remarked many times that we feel like we LIVE at Wal-Mart! You can only get each category of item at a specific store for those type of things. For example, you can only buy vegetables, milk, cookies, detergent, meat and household products separately as you go to each of the different people in their small family-owned businesses. There are so many little shops on the street that you lose count very quickly. Here we are at some of our favorite places - where we get our breakfast cake muffins, chicken sandwiches (our occasional fix of "western-type" food), shoes, stationery, sports equipment, etc. How I wore the same shirt in every single picture I'll never know. I'm actually wearing it right now, too! Send clothes! :)



The renovations are coming along! Stay tuned for pictures . . . .

Parting Shot :

Here's a night shot of the Central Garden in our city. It is very busy and is really interesting and beautiful. It's also the location of a fun western-style chicken restaurant with good food and a small indoor playgroud that the girls can play on. Nighty - night!

NEWS FLASH : NO MORE PRISON BEDS!!!
Here are the twins sleeping in their new soft double bed!
Here we are going home with Brooks and Kendall's new twin beds, and above on the right is our new bigger fridge, with a freezer on the bottom. We have also recently purchased a large round kitchen table with 6 chairs, new very comfy den furniture and a cool machine that both washes and dries our clothes! I wish they had those in America -
Above, the infamous "prison beds"- functional but hard, tall and scary!










This is the size of our original fridge, about the height of an almost 6 year old!











Above Left : We're mastering the use of chopsticks, even with tiny little rice!

Left : Here is a picture of mustache-less Albert leaning on the new full water cooler that he ordered from the water company, even telling them where to deliver it, without using any English!!! Yeah, Albert!







We have had lots of small victories and fun stories to share from the last week or so. We are slowly but surely outfitting our apartment for what is considered a very large family over on this side of the planet, so that it will be comfortable for our time of learning Chinese. Renovations of our kitchen and bathroom should begin within the next week. That's both exciting and scary!

Here's a story that was not funny when it was happening, but is growing on us as time passes :
There is no bread available here in our city, plus you are unable to get an oven, bread machine, yeast, baking powder, baking soda or butter! When we were coming home from our vacation in Thailand last month, we found a single bread machine in all of the city where our international flight landed. We negotiated two train stations, two taxis and lots of miles and got my precious machine home safely. I had made one lovely, yummy loaf of bread, and Albert, the wonderful husband that he is, was washing the dishes after dinner. Now, even dish washing is not without its difficulties over here. We fill a large bowl with warm, soapy water to wash and then rinse in the small sink we have in our kitchen. If there are lots of dishes, you have to empty the wash water in some other place besides the sink, and in this case the final destination of the water was none other than our squatty potty. Does anyone know what a bread machine dash is, like the thing that makes it all work so that you can have that lovely loaf of bread? Can anyone guess what I am going to say? Yes, friends and family, the dash was poured down the squatty potty with the dish water. Now, as I said, there is no bread here to be found, and this was the only machine within MANY miles of our house. Add to this fact that we obviously hardly speak any Chinese, much less know the words for "bread machine dash", and the thought of having to somehow attempt to order a new part for my machine under those circumstances was a nauseating thought to me. Speaking of nauseating, I was thus willing to sacrifice limb and cleanliness for my new friend, the bread machine. I was getting the dash back, even if it meant reaching my entire arm down the squatty potty. And that, my friends, is exactly what I did. In a fit of passion for my wonderful new machine, I laid prostrate on the floor of our lovely latrine and got that dash back as the children shrieked in horror at what their mother was doing. All this time trying to convince them to stay as far away as possible from this nasty hole in the floor and now Mom is reaching down into the bowels of the beast. I am happy to report that after a thorough cleansing and boiling ceremony, we are back in the bread-making business. Each loaf has been a little more appreciated since that terrible day. And the children are still staying pretty clean, too! They understand now that a woman has to do what a woman has to do. After all, it was all in the name of providing for the family :)

I'm sure we will have equally hilarious adventures to share with you next week. Keep checking back to see what crazy stuff has happened in the Allen house, affectionately known as the funny farm! Until then . . . .

Well, I've finally done it . . . . .

I went to the market this morning and, yes, I purchased a chicken for dinner. Now, this is not the SuperTarget, where you get to pick your nicely packaged cellophane boneless and skinless chicken breast. It is not even headless, featherless, organless or footless. It's actually still clucking. I looked into its beady little eyes and told the lady "I want that one" and they proceeded to slit its throat. I felt bad for a little while, as I listened to it flapping around in the big bin they put it in to die. Is anyone getting completely grossed out yet? Well, to make a long story short, when I got home I told Albert we'd have to go OUT to eat to get our chicken for the foreseeable future. I just can't handle all this death every weekend. Especially when I'm a Gamecock fan!!!!! More funny stories to come . . . .

P.S. Go Cocks! Beat the Dawgs!!!!!!!

FIRST DAY OF HOMESCHOOL FOR THE YEAR!!!!
We started school last Monday and the kids are doing great. Here are Whitney and Sidney's "first day of kindergarten" pictures, along with Brooks' 5th grade and Kendall's 3rd grade debut. They are sitting in front of a big map of China on the wall.
Brooks and Kendall are continuing their Language Arts programs based on great literature, and their Math programs concentrating on hands-on learning using manipulatives. Kendall has also started a Drawing class taught on DVD by Thomas Kinkade.
The twins are doing a Kindergarten program teaching letters, phonics, beginning reading, numbers, basic math, coloring, cutting and pasting and other fun kindergarten things!
We are also beginning a nature study based on the novel "Misty of Chincoteague," and so far we have found Assateague Island on the map and learned a little about horses, including drawing our own bay-colored horse, just like Misty. We plan on studying Ancient China this year as well as World Geography. And of course we'll add attempting to learn Chinese to the mix as well!